I went to a crummy high school, and grammar was definitely not my thing. In fact, I probably did not learn what a pronoun was until I worked at AnswerLogic. (At AnswerLogic, I also learned that marketing is a gerund! Who knew?)

However, I have now decided that pronouns play a surprisingly important part in building a high-performance organization.

When employees – especially executives – talk, I listen for their choice of pronoun.

• Do they say, “When you decided,” or “When we decided?”
• Do they say, “Their strategy is to …” or “Our strategy is to …”
• Do they say, “Their goals are …” or “My goals are …”

When I hear people describe things in the third person, I know that they are not fully bought-in. They are holding the organization, its vision, its values, and its goals at arm’s-length. They are reserving judgment. Leaving a way out.

So leaders, I suggest that you start by examining your own choice of pronouns. Are you fully bought-in? Then, start listening for the pronouns that everyone else is using.

You can’t finish in first place if everyone talks in the third person.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

When I proposed to my wife, I did so by giving her a card that said, “Congratulations on Your Engagement!” (I thought it was clever, but she did not get it … which led to a few awkward moments.)

Recently, hundreds of companies participated in the Best Places to Work process, which uses a 37 question survey that measures employee engagement. While 50 companies celebrated, hundreds were confronted with the reality that they were not on the list.

Many factors contribute to an organization’s employee engagement score, including compensation, benefits, job-fit, career opportunities, confidence in the strategy, etc.

It is tempting to think that improving engagement is primarily the job of our senior executives. However, in reality, improving engagement is everyone’s responsibility.

• Everyone contributes to the culture. When you tolerate behavior that is out-of-line, it reduces everyone else’s engagement.

• Everyone is a member of the team. When you disparage your teammates, it reduces everyone else’s engagement.

• Everyone has internal customers. When you miss deadlines or deliverables, it reduces everyone else’s engagement.

• Everyone owns the strategy. When you allow negativity and pessimism, it reduces everyone else’s engagement.

My wife had a choice about getting engaged (thankfully, 25 years ago, she eventually got the joke and said yes.)

Likewise, you have a choice about getting engaged as well. I encourage you to take ownership of your own engagement level and realize that your decision will have a far greater impact on your organization winning a Best Place to Work award than anything our senior executives will do.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

While the winners of the Best Places to Work awards are celebrating, the organizations that did not win are having a range of reactions.

Some organizations “sweep the results under the rug.”  They basically ignore the feedback, often using the excuse that the survey results are rigged somehow.

Some organizations react with anger and retribution.  They are mad at the employees, and go into a rant that “they should be happy that they even have a job!”  The worst offenders even try to identify who the disengaged employees are, and plot some kind of retribution.

Some organizations actually study the results and identify areas of improvement.  Some even convene task forces to work on the issue.  However, in our experience, most of these task forces will fade away, action plans will never get implemented, and the tyranny of the urgent will prevail.

The best organizations see the survey results as a sobering wake-up call.  They share the results with everyone in organization, and develop real action plans to improve.  The CEO has a “conversion experience.” Rather than delegate the issue to a powerless task force, the CEO decides to make employee engagement their number one priority.  They own it, drive it, and get their entire executive team engaged in the process.

Improving employee engagement is really, really hard.  Getting to Best Place to Work levels is a long, uphill climb.  Most won’t try.  Some will try but give up.  A few – perhaps 1% of organizations – will make the commitment.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Each year, the Washington Business Journal recognizes the 50 best places to work in the greater Washington area. 

These awards are based on the results of the Best Places to Work employee engagement survey, which was developed by Quantum Workplace.  The survey contains 37 questions and used a six part likert-scale model (strongly disagree, disagree, somewhat disagree, somewhat agree, agree and strongly agree).

Unlike other workplace awards programs, there is no subjective element in selecting the winners … judges don’t tip the scales based on their opinions or advertising revenue.  The employee engagement score is the only criteria. 

The BPTW program yields tremendous benefits.  In our opinion, an organization’s employee engagement number is a critical one on the Dashboard.  Every participant gains statistically valid data about employee engagement, which can help them improve their performance. 

According to Quantum, organizations with employee engagement scores in the top ten percent experience measureable results, including:

• 87% show increased revenue
• 86% report increased market share
• 57% report lower employee turnover

Congratulations again to the winners.  Full speed ahead!

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust. 

Shift Your Thinking.  Accelerate Your Results.

In the DC area, 50 companies were selected as Best Places to Work … but thousands were not selected.  Many applied for the award but did not win.  Some chose not to apply.  Others were afraid to even try, often because they did not want to confront the brutal facts of how their employees really felt.

The issue is not the award, since many great organizations did not win.

The real issue is, “Is every employee contributing at the absolute maximum of their potential?”

If not, why not?

So, think about each of your employees, and consider two things:

• What is their maximum potential contribution?
• What is their current contribution?

The gap is contribution that you are paying for but are not getting.

High-performance organizations are exceptional at maximizing the contribution of every single employee.  They put people before profits … and ironically, that is exactly why they are so profitable.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

On Friday 6/11, the Washington Business Journal held the Best Places to Work award breakfast.

It was a rah-rah event with a movie theme.  Each of the winners had to select a movie that best represented their companies.  At first, it seemed a bit hokey … but it actually revealed just how diverse the winners are.

Answers included The Godfather 2, The Right Stuff, Get Shorty, Shrek, and Alice’s Restaurant.

This diversity reflected the wide range of organizations who won this year, and a few of them are really surprising.

• Jim Koons Automotive – the first place winner in the large company with local headquarters category.  Can you imagine that a car dealership has the highest employee engagement score of any large company?

• Miriam’s Kitchen – the only non profit winner.  Their wages are low, their hours are long, and the job demands are overwhelming.  Which just proves that inspiring leadership can overcome any obstacle.

• Quest Diagnostics, The Meltzer Group, HITT Contracting, and Davis Construction all have won four times in a row.  This proves that it is possible to maintain exceptional employee engagement through good and bad economies.

As I’ve mentioned, two of Dashboard’s clients were among the 50 winners.  Congratulations again to Group W (www.groupw.com) and BTI (www.bti360.com).

The Best Places to Work awards process starts again in 9 months – and the best leaders are already in top gear.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.